Mailchimp – an Introduction (Create an account, add a logo, create and share a signup form)
This tutorial is meant for users who have no experience of using Mailchimp, and perhaps want to add a newsletter sign up function to their website or social media. Hope you enjoy!
Step 1 – Creating a Mailchimp Account
Access the website www.mailchimp.com and click on Sign Up Free in the top right-hand corner.
Fill in the form – type in your email address, a username and a password (must be a minimum of 8 characters, include 1 lowercase, 1 uppercase, 1 special character and 1 number…)
Then, click on Get Started! You will then be sent an activation email. Click on Activate Account. Then on the Confirm Humanity screen, click on the I’m not a robot box.
Step 2 – Mailchimp Account Settings
The first time you log into your account, or if you have just activated your account, you will be asked for a variety of information. You will be asked to choose a plan –
(If necessary, click on the down arrow in the top right-hand corner to change the currency.
Plan features
If you are not sure which plan to choose, click on Compare Plan Features. As of November 2019, the following features form part of different plans –
Then, click on Complete.
Adding Your Details
You will then be asked for some of your personal details –
Fill in your first and last name, then click on Continue.
Fill in your business name & website address, then click on Continue.
Add a physical address, click on Continue.
Select whether or not you have a list of email subscribers, then click on Continue. Now it will ask if you want to connect any of your social media to Mailchimp. (You can do this later if you are not sure). If you want to, click on the + next to Facebook or Twitter.
If you are not logged into Facebook or Twitter, you’ll see a login screen. After logging in, you will be told that Mailchimp will have access to your name and profile picture. Click on Continue as Your Name Here. (Unless you want to review the info that you provide).
Click OK. You will then see a tick next to any connected social media. (You can change all of these options later, in your account settings.) Click on Continue.
Finding your Marketing Path
Finally, Mailchimp asks for some information about your business. Click on OK Let’s Do It or Not Right Now.
If you click on OK Let’s Do It, you will be asked a few questions about your business. For example, Do you make money from the content on your site? Mailchimp might ask if you sell things online, if you want people to talk one-to-one with a person? Or if you support bookings, tickets or appointments online? Or if your customers interact with your business mostly through your software or app’s interface?
Finally, you are ready to go! Click on the boxes to put a tick in them if you want to subscribe to What’s in Store or Mailchimp Presents (a monthly newletter), then click on Let’s Go!
Your account setup is now complete.
Connecting Mailchimp
Now Mailchimp wants to connect to your shop (if you have one). If you do, click on Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
To connect Mailchimp to other ecommerce stores or other platforms, click on View All Integations. Here you can connect Mailchimp to Magento, Square, WordPress, Eventbrite, Canva and many other platforms.
You don’t have to connect all of your other platforms to Mailchimp right now. At any point, you can click on your account drop-down arrow in the top right-hand corner of the screen and choose Connected Sites to connect other platforms to Mailchimp.
I will cover connecting Mailchimp to Facebook, Eventbrite, Canva and WordPress in a later blog.
Step 3 – Uploading Image Files and Setting a Logo
You can upload images files to use in your marketing and set a logo in Mailchimp by clicking on the Content Studio Tab
And then choose Upload in the top right-hand corner.
Note – If you click on the drop-down arrow, you can import images from a website. Simply click on Import from URL, then enter the web address (URL) into the box and click on Import.
Navigate to where your images are saved, then click on an image and choose Open. (You can select more than one image at a time buy holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and clicking to select images) Your image will then upload into MailChimp’s Content Studio.
To set a logo, select the image that you want to use as your logo, by clicking on it.
Click on the drop-down arrow next to View Details and choose Set My Logo.
In the menu down the left, click on My Logo. The image you selected should be displayed. By setting a logo, Mailchimp will automatically add it in any logo placeholder that is available in any of your campaigns.
Step 4 – Setting up an existing Audience (Contacts)
Mailchimp refers to your contacts as your audience. When you
create a Mailchimp account, you can add your existing contacts to Mailchimp to
automatically generate your audience. You can then edit your audience if you
need to or start adding new contacts.
Step 5 – Adding GDPR Compliance to Signup Forms
Click on the Audience tab
(Note – If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.) Then, click on View Contacts.
Click on the Settings drop-down arrow and choose Audience name and defaults.
In the Form settings section, click on the box next to Enable GDPR fields.
Now, scroll down the page and click on Save Audience and Campaign Defaults.
Step 6 – Adding Double Opt-In to Signup Forms (Optional)
Double opt-in on a signup form is a signup form that includes a confirmation step where the contact receives an email and has to click on the link to confirm their signup.
To set it up, click on the Audience tab .
Note – If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
Click on View Contacts. Click on the Settings drop-down arrow and choose Audience name and defaults.
In the Form settings section, click on the box next to Enable double opt-in.
Now, scroll down the page and click on Save Audience and Campaign Defaults.
Step 7 – Creating a Signup Form to Generate an Audience (Contacts)
If you don’t have any contacts yet, you can create a signup form to post on your website, Facebook page etc to create new contacts. (Note – You may want to follow the steps above to add GDPR compliance, upload a logo and enable double opt-in before starting this).
To create a signup form, click on the Audience Tab, click on the Manage Audience drop-down arrow and choose Signup forms.
Click on Form Builder
The Form Builder will then open up.
Step 8 – Building Your SignUp Form
Note – If you don’t want to create a signup form, click on the drop-down here to change the type of form you are creating .
When people sign up to your list, you can let them specify which email format they prefer to receive – either plain text or html, by ticking the box here.
This URL is a direct link to your hosted signup form. There are also three icons for built-in sharing methods for Facebook, Twitter, and a QR code. (More about these sharing methods later)
Now you need to design your form. If you hover your mouse pointer over the header, some options will appear – edit, remove and use image.
Content Studio
If you click on Use Image, you will be taken to the Content Studio, where any images you have uploaded will be visible. Select an image (by clicking on it).
Then click on Insert (in the top right-hand corner). You will then have the opportunity to amend the image (if you want). Click on Save & Insert Image. Your image should now be inserted into your form –
Now you can continue customising the form. Click where it says Click to add a message and type in a greeting. You might include information about how often you will email subscribers (e.g. weekly, monthly, quarterly) and the sort of information you will send (offers, discounts etc).
Type your message, make any formatting changes you want (using the toolbar provided), then click on Save and Close.
If at any point you want to edit your greeting, hover your mouse pointer over the text, and click on the Edit button, which will appear in the top right-hand corner.
Click to select any of the fields on your signup form. You can then edit that field’s settings on the right. If you make any changes, click on Save Field.
Reordering Fields
You can also click and drag to reorder the fields. Your mouse pointer will look like a hand, and Mailchimp will show you where you are moving the block to, using the text Drop block here.
Delete a Field
To delete a field, click on the field to select it, then either click on Delete in the field settings section on the right, or click on the minus sign under the field. You will then be asked to confirm the deletion by typing in the word DELETE (in capitols). Then, click on Delete.
Editing GDPR Compliance
If you have added GDPR compliance to your form, there will be a marketing preferences section at the bottom of it.
You can edit the form using the field settings down the right-hand side. So, for example, if you are not planning to send any direct mail, you can delete the direct mail option by clicking on the minus sign next to it. Then type in DELETE (in capitols) and click on Delete.
In the field settings down the right-hand side, make sure you put a tick in the Require at least one option box.
Step 9 – Designing Your Form
When you are happy with the content of your form, click on the Design it tab, across the top of your form. This is where you can apply your business branding (style and colours) to your form.
Under the Design it tab you have four subtabs – one for each part of your form (Page, Body, Forms and MonkeyRewards). Within each subtab there are different options.
Page Tab
Under the Page tab you have three options – Background, Header and Outer wrapper.
As you click on these a red box will appear on your form, showing you which area of your form you are amending.
Clicking on Background allows you to enter a hex code for your background. If you don’t know what hex code you want for your background, click into the box, and a colour chart will appear that allows you to choose a colour by clicking on it.
Clicking on Header allows you to specify the size of your header text and distance (padding) from your form body.
Outer Wrapper
allows you to change the background colour. If you click into the box, a colour
chart will appear that allows you to choose a colour by clicking on it.
Body Tab
Click on the Body Tab. Under the Body tab you have three options – Foreground, Default text and Link style.
If you click on the Foreground tab, a red box will appear on your form, showing you which area of your form you are amending. Click into the background box and select a colour for the background of your form. This will be the background colour for everything apart from your header, which you have already amended (see above).
If you click on the Default Text tab, you can amend the default text styles.
If you click on the Link Style tab, you can amend the text colour for all of your hyperlinks in your form, by clicking into the box, then clicking on a colour.
Forms Tab
Click on the Forms Tab. Under the Forms tab you have several options – Buttons, Buttons hovered, Field Labels, Field Text, Required, Required Legend, Help Text and Errors. Again, a red box will appear on your form, showing you which area of your form you are amending, as you amend different areas.
Buttons Tab
If you click on the Buttons tab, you can change the background and text colour of the buttons in your forms by clicking into the box, then clicking on a colour.
Buttons Hovered Tab
If you click on the Buttons Hovered tab, you can change the background and text colour of the when you move your mouse pointer over them in your forms by clicking into the box, then clicking on a colour.
Field Labels
If you click on Field Labels, you can amend the style, size and colour of the text above each form field. (For example, “Email Address” and “First Name”)
Field Text Tab
When you click on the Field Text tab, you can amend the font style and colour of the input fields on your form.
Required Tab
If you click on Required tab, you can change the colour of the required asterisks (if you have made any of the fields on your form required fields). You can also use the drop-down to show or hide this. If you haven’t made any fields required fields, and you want to, go back to the Build It tab, select a Field and on the right-hand side (in the Field Settings) put a tick in the Required Field Checkbox.
Required Legend Tab
When you click on the Required Legend tab, you can choose whether to show or hide the required field instructions. Again, a red box will indicate where you are making changes –
Help Text tab
If you click on Help Text tab, you can change the colour of the help text that displays when a subscriber clicks on a field.
Errors tab
And finally on the Forms tab, if you click on the Errors tab, you can amend the text colour and font weight (either bold or normal) of the warnings that appear if invalid data is entered.
If you click on the MonkeyRewards tab, you can choose which Mailchimp logo you want displayed and where you want it aligned.
Translate it
If you click on the Translate it tab at the top of the screen, you can choose whether or not to put a tick into the Auto-translate checkbox. Putting a tick in this box will allow Mailchimp to try to automatically switch the language of your form to match the language specified by the user’s browser.
Hopefully you now have a form you are happy with, and you can now go ahead and embed it on your website or share it on social.
Step 10 – Sharing Your Form on Facebook
Click on the Audience tab. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the audience you want to work with.
Click on the Manage Audience drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of your screen and choose Signup forms.
Click on Form builder, then click on the Facebook icon.
(If you’re not already signed into Facebook, you’ll be prompted to log in.) In the Facebook dialogue box, click on the drop-down arrow menu and choose which page you want to post the signup form link.
Type in any additional text to share in the post, then click on Share Link. The link to your signup form will then appear as a Timeline post on the page you specified.
Step 11 – Sharing Your Form on Twitter
To tweet a link to your signup form, click on the Audience tab.
If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the audience you want to work with.
Click on the Manage Audience drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of your screen and choose Signup forms.
Click on Form builder and click on the Twitter icon.
In the Twitter window, type in any additional text to appear with the shortened link. Click Tweet. (If you’re not already signed into Twitter, type in your username/email or phone number, and password, then click on Log In and Tweet.)
You will then see a confirmation message. You can click on the link to view it on Twitter.
Step 12 – Sharing Your Form with a QR code
Mailchimp generates a unique QR code for each of your signup forms, so you can then display a QR code in your printed materials (for example on a business card, on flyers, leaflets, guider user guides and manuals). Potential subscribers can then use their mobile devices to scan the code and view your signup form. Click on the Audience tab. If you have more than one audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the audience you want to work with.
Click on the Manage Audience drop-down arrow on the right-hand side of your screen and choose Signup forms. Click on Form builder, then click on the QR icon.
The Subscribe Form QR code dialogue box will then appear –
Click on Small, Medium, or Large to choose the size of image you want to download. (Alternatively, if your QR code doesn’t download automatically, right-click the image, and save it to your computer).
You can now put your QR code that links to your signup form on your printed materials.
This post is available as a downloadable .pdf in the Resources Section of this website. I hope you find it useful!
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